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The third Palestinian intifada is already under way, a top IDF officer told reserve troops last week, warning that things could get bad even without thousands of gunmen charging Israel’s borders. “It doesn’t take thousands of AK-47 assault rifles to create problems,” Col. Yaniv Alaluf said.

Alaluf, the commander of the Etzion region brigade, said the IDF expects to see more clashes with Palestinians like one that took place last week in Jenin, but it is well prepared and capable of dealing with terror, Ynet reported on Sunday.

“[Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas’s process is over and has been replaced by the Hamas approach,” Alaluf said. “Abbas has no chance of survival in the Arab Spring, and he understands that the path of talks with Israel has come to an end. The question now is what will replace it.”

“The third intifada won’t be like the second one, which caught us unprepared,” said Alaluf. “Today we’re at a much better starting position. Terror won’t make it to the center [of the country] because our defense system is better prepared.”

The officer expressed concern, though, that the IDF’s reserves forces might be overburdened in the case that the army needed to launch another operation in the Gaza Strip. “The multiplicity of the missions” that would need to be carried out by reservists would be huge, he said.